Steyr-Hahn Pistol 9mm

Steyr-Hahn used a 9mm cartriges, also loaded from a stripper clip. The barrel rotates on recoil to unlock, a design still used by several modern handguns. Select-fire versions were also produced, and were as difficult to control as the automatic C96 variants. Many were exported outside of Austria and some were re-chambered to fire 9mm Luger ammunition. Some of the Mausers were, likewise, converted to fire 9mm Luger. China even produced a .45ACP variant.
The Steyr-Hahn (hahn is German for hammer) pistol was first produced in 1911 with a fixed blade front sight, the model M11. It is an 8 shot top loader that is stripper fed, shooting the 9mm Steyr cartridge. The model M12 with dovetailed front sight is otherwise identical. The M12 was elvaluated for military use, but was not adapted by the Austrian Army until the First World War began. The gun was produced until 1919 although it is believed that many were assembled from parts for several years thereafter. The Romanian police used the Steyr-Hahn and that version bears a Romanian Crest. The Chilean Army adopted the M11 and that model bears a crest also. It should be noted that serial numbers for the Romanian contract guns are directly continued into the guns produced for the Austrian Army, when the contract for Romania was discontinued. Guns with both Romanian contract parts and Austrian acceptance proofs are common for this transition period. About 300,000 were made in all. A few Steyr-Hahns Model M16 in full auto with extended magazines were used in WWI and by early Austrian Nazis. The Czechs were known to have converted some military issue Steyr-Hahns to full auto with a similar mechanism as the factory produced weapons but without the extended magazine. A wooden shoulder stock/holster with a cup that accepts an unaltered Steyr-Hahn's frame about the grip is occasionally seen.
The serial number typically appears in 3 places, the left frame above the trigger, and immediately above that on the left center slide. The serial number will also be on the barrel, sometimes without the trailing alphabetic suffix. Rarely the serialnumber will be on the grip's butt.
The grips are typically a brown stained wood with a raised crosshatch pattern. They are slid into cuts in the frame and secured with a single screw through the frame at the grip butt.
All parts show small proof stamps consisting of the initial of the person who proofed the weapon.
Design:
The final design was by Chief Engineer Konrad Murgthaler. It was based on earlier design work by Karl Krnka, Georg Roth, and Ferdinand Mannlicher. The Steyr-Hahn is a large frame semi-auto, single action pistol. The slide is retained on the frame by a keeper similar to that on the 1905 Colt. The action is that of a rotating barrel which is kept locked by the action of the bullet passing thru the bore. When the bullet has left the bore, the barrel is free to rotate and unlock the slide, which recoils to the rear. It is otherwise similar to other semiauto pistols with a recoil spring under the barrel which is retained by the keeper pin. It has an external hammer with a small spur. There is a safety on the frame, below the hammer, which locks into a notch in the slide. There is also a notch halfway along the slide which will hold the slide back with the safety. The slide will be held back after the last round is fired by the back of the cartridge follower from the magazine well. The trigger pull is transmitted via a transfer bar under the slide which pulls forward the sear, and releases the hammer.
To load, with the slide back, raise the safety into the notch in the slide to lock the slide back. Insert a stripper clip into the clip glide in the slide's ejection port, and strip the cartridges into the magazine well. Cartridges can also be single loaded in this manner. To unload the magazine well, lock the slide to the rear with the safety; then push down on the magazine release above the left grip.